Attention & Focus · “You Become What You Hold”
Pam Grout's Volkswagen Jetta Principle
To demonstrate, by deliberately hunting for one chosen object for 24 hours, that ‘you find what you look for’ — that intention and attention determine what you perceive.
Volkswagen Jetta Principle in 4 lines: Day 1 — pick one specific, uncommon thing (e.g. beige cars) and look for it all day, tallying each sighting. Day 2 — pick a rarer target (purple feathers / butterflies) and do the same. Notice how much more often it shows up once you’re looking. Lesson: you find what you look for — so aim your attention on purpose.
What it is
The second E-Squared experiment is a 24-hour scavenger hunt for one specific, fairly uncommon thing — Grout’s examples are a particular car colour (“sunset beige” vehicles) and then purple feathers (other editions/readers use butterflies).
You declare your target, then spend a day noticing how often it appears. The point Grout drives home: “you see in life what you look for, and you can find anything you look for.” It is the most empirically honest of her experiments — a direct, do-it-yourself demonstration of how intention reshapes perception (and, more contestably for Grout, “reality”).
The Method
From E-Squared, Experiment #2, “The Volkswagen Jetta Principle” (hypothesis as Grout frames it: you find what you look for — your dominant thoughts determine what shows up in your awareness):
- Choose your first target — something specific and not everywhere. Grout’s example: sunset-beige cars (the name nods to spotting “your” car model everywhere after you buy it). Pick one clear, moderately uncommon object.
- Give it a 24-hour window. Declare the start; for the next full day, actively look for that one thing, intending to see it.
- Notice and tally every appearance. Each time the target shows up, register it. Grout’s claim is that you’ll be startled how often it appears once you’re looking.
- Day two: pick a second, more unusual target. Grout uses purple feathers (some readers/editions use butterflies or another rare item). Repeat the 24-hour hunt for the new object.
- Set the intention plainly. State that you intend to find it; treat the looking as expectant, not desperate.
- Draw the conclusion she points to. The lesson: what you focus on is what you perceive — so where you aim attention is, in effect, what you “create” in your experienced world. (Sourcing note: the two-target, 24-hours-each structure, “sunset beige” cars, and “you find what you look for” are Grout’s documented Experiment 2 instructions. The second target appears as purple feathers in her text; butterflies appear in reader accounts/other framings — both are faithful to the design.)
Source & Lineage
Pam Grout (b. 1956) wrote E-Squared (2013) and its sequels as accessible “energy experiments.”. This particular experiment is, in effect, a popular restatement of the frequency illusion / Baader-Meinhof phenomenon and the reticular activating system folk-explanation common in self-help.
It also encodes the New Thought axiom “thoughts are things” / “what you focus on grows,” and prefigures her E-Cubed and Thank & Grow Rich attention-and-gratitude work.
The Traditions' versions
“Reticular activating system” self-help trope — the popular (loosely accurate) version of why you suddenly see your new car everywhere.
- New Thought “what you focus on expands” — Wattles, Holmes, Hicks; Grout demonstrates it concretely.
- Gratitude attention practices — counting blessings is the same selective-attention mechanism aimed at the good.
- Mindfulness “anchoring attention” — deliberately directing where awareness lands.
- Her own blessing experiment — same noticing engine, framed as cosmic response.
Common refinements
Picking something ubiquitous (e.g. white cars) — too common to feel revealing, or so common you stop noticing. Choose moderately rare.
- Over-claiming. Don’t conclude you “made feathers appear.” The honest, still-impressive claim is that you control what you notice.
- Half-hearted looking. The effect needs genuine intention; idle awareness underperforms.
- Driving while hunting cars. Do it as a passenger or pedestrian.
- Refinement: after the toy targets, turn the same mechanism on something useful — spend a day hunting for “evidence that people are kind” or “openings to solve X.” Same engine, real payoff.